Today’s post by Mark Toal

Summer is rodeo time in the West so last week I headed to the St. Paul, Oregon 4th of July Rodeo. Rodeo’s can be tough to shoot because they usually take place in the afternoon when the sun is the brightest and the shadows are the worst. Try getting detail in the cowboy’s face being shaded from the bright sun by a black cowboy hat.

My solution is to check out the action in Slack, which usually takes place very early in the morning. Slack is a way to handle the large amount of contestants in a rodeo. It’s basically the overflow contestants that do their events in the morning to keep the rodeo from being too long. It’s often open to the public and free. You will find very few people, great lighting and better access than later in the day.